W3C is holding a workshop in Dublin, Ireland on 5-6 June on
web authoring techniques that reduce the need for scripting
through the use of modeling techniques. We hope to tap into
the academic research work on user interface and application
modeling, and the potential for describing applications from
an end to end perspective, rather than just the pieces that
are downloaded to a particular browser.
On the desktop, developers need to contend with several
different versions of several different browsers, each with
different levels of support and different bugs. The situation
is very much worse for mobile devices and this presents real
challenges to developing and delivering web applications with
limited budgets.
In principle, this can be addressed by describing applications
at a level that is decoupled from the details of specific
devices, and the use of policies that separately describe how
to adapt the presentation and behavior to match these devices.
W3C has made some steps in this direction with work on device
independent authoring languages, device descriptions and the
means to select markup or style rules according to the context.
However, there is plenty of potential for markup languages that
describe applications at a level that includes both client and
server, e.g. based upon event-driven state models.
As more and more devices are gaining some kind of networking
capability, there is an opportunity to apply web technologies
to describing multi-device applications, e.g. using a digital
TV or mobile handset to access and control household appliances,
home entertainment, security and surveillance systems. What
kinds of models are appropriate for such distributed web
applications?
When it comes to access to device capabilities and services,
what kinds of security models are appropriate and how can
these be made sufficiently usable to work in practice?
Examples include access from within a web browser to the
device's built-in camera, or the means to remotely unlock
the front door of a building. The Semantic Web would seem to
offer promising techniques for descriptions of devices and
services as a basis for discovery, and policies for access
control.
The Web is still in its early days and there remain significant
challenges for improving the way in which we author Web
applications, however these also represent huge opportunities.
W3C welcomes you to come to Dublin, the capital of Ireland
and the epicenter for Guiness lovers everywhere, to participate
in the workshop on declarative models of distributed web
applications. If you are interested in participating, please
send us a brief statement of interest to
team-ubiwebws-submit@w3.org
Further details can be found at:
http://www.w3.org/2007/02/dmdwa-ws/
Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett